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Tag: Commentary

For those of us old enough to recall the great days of Bill Russel and the Boston Celtics, of Red Auerbach and John Havlicek, well, it didn’t get any better than that.

Havlicek died two weeks ago. He died as he lived and played, that is, with nearly everyone who knew him, who watched him, who loved him for his sports theatrics when life was very different than it is today recalling what a great guy he was.

He was humble. He was talented. He went off into the sunset after his career never looking back.

The death of Aretha Franklin at 76 is a great loss not for black people alone, but for all of us, white and black, who were mesmerized by her voice.

That powerful, melodic, extraordinary voice pierced our sensibilities during the 1960’s and 1970’s, and in ways that were unimaginable for white kids growing up in all white suburbs in the relatively segregated America of that time and day.

Ms. Franklin’s song, “Respect,” stands as one of the all time great musical coming together songs for the ages.

It was a song sung by all of us, black or white, and often shouted out with vigor when we were young, because it was a song about the energy of a great a generation coming up – a giving birth song if you will, reminiscent of the few great things that rocked our world when we were much younger than we are today.

To have been a white teenager in an all white community, in an all white America at the time that song came out, was to have become transformed by something one had never heard – and which we will likely never hear anything quite like it again.

It’s been a week since Steve Wynn resigned as chairman and chief executive of the corporation that bears his name in the wake of an explosive Wall Street Journal report that outlines years of menacing sexual misconduct. He denied the allegations, but only as he was tumbling down multiple flights of stairs. It’s 2018 and things happen freakishly fast when someone gets caught in the #MeToo vortex. No big-wig is too big to fall. Continue reading Questions On Top of Questions

Matthew Maddox is the new president of Wynn Resorts whose former leader, Steve Wynn, has resigned in disgrace following revelations in the Wall Street Journal and further revelations in the Las Vegas Sun about Wynn’s appalling behavior.

Dozens of women interviewed told stories about Wynn’s sexual advances and sexual incidents – and there were dozens of women who came forward by name.

Enter Mr. Maddox, the new president of Wynn Resorts. He worked side by side with Wynn for more than a decade. He rose through the ranks to become Wynn’s main man.

Wynn liked him. He liked Wynn. They spent an enormous amount of time together both socially and time together for the business while building the company.

Both men came to know one another well.

Might they have shared a secret or two?

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission will be examining Maddox’s suitability to be the president of the corporation that owns the gambling license at the Wynn Boston Harbor Casino and Hotel in Everett.

The Commission’s investigative arm will be scouring Maddox’s past, as they scoured Wynn’s past 4 years ago.

Four years ago the investigators reported Wynn was perfectly suitable after a long and thorough investigation.

Will Maddox receive the same suitability OK as his predecessor after a long and thorough investigation?

Will commission investigators ask Maddox if he was a visitor to Wynn’s main office during the decade he worked as his right hand man?

If Maddox answers, “Yes,” will they then ask:

“Did you ever wonder what went on inside the room with the massage table or did Mr. Wynn tell you about his many conquests?”

How does Maddox answer such questions?

If he answers, “No,” he is a liar.

If he answers “Yes,” he is unfit to be the president of Wynn Resorts.

If Maddox says he had no idea what kind of man Wynn was in his private life, that there was no way to know what Wynn’s sexual proclivities were and what his sexual excesses consisted of, he is a liar as a fool.

Such claims of not knowing about a man he worked side by side with for more than a decade is the stuff of stale fiction.

The Gaming Commission investigators who did the original look into Wynn’s suitability should be fired. In fact, they should be investigated.

If the same investigators look into Maddox’s life and determine he is suitable, well, what is there to say?

The Gaming Commission has a tough job to do determining exactly who has not been soiled by their longtime association with Wynn.

It is both obvious and damning that everyone who worked closely with Wynn knew about his excesses.

The same way an alcoholic friend can’t hide his drinking habit, Wynn couldn’t hide his sexual abuse of women from his closest colleagues.